Past Meet Future
by Serena Thorn
Summary: Elle had never been more certain of her future then when she was transported to the past.


Title: Past, Meet Future  
Rating: PG  
Summary: Elle had never been more certain of her future then when she was transported to the past.  
Spoilers: If there are any they're so minor you won't even notice  
Disclaimer: Heroes is not owned by me, but by Tim Kring. I'm simply borrowing these characters for non-profit entertainment.  
A/N: Prompted by half_stack on LJ. Add to that I just love the idea of Elle going back to the '80s so here's hoping you enjoy too. One more thing: This isn't for those who take their Heroes timelines too seriously.

* * *

What had she done to deserve this? Why did she keep getting sent through time? Why in hell couldn't Peter just control his powers for once?! She had gone to talk to him and the next thing she knew she was in an apartment she didn't even vaguely remember And yet there her father was. She could only assume it was either before she was born or she was living with her mother then.

It had taken her almost an hour to convince Bob she was his daughter, never more thankful for her powers. Of course he had still ridiculed her and belittled her and even blamed her for currently being stuck in the past. She shrugged it off as best she could before heading into her father's guest room for the night. At least he had gotten her a change of clothes to sleep in with the promise he would have more waiting for her the next day. Some days she loved New York.

She awoke the next morning to the sound of male voices in the next room. One she knew to be her father's and the other sounded almost as equally familiar yet she couldn't immediately place it. Still she couldn't stop herself from going to investigate, not even stopping to change out of her pajamas.

"Don't I know you?" Elle asked to the man dressed in a nice blue suit and tie who looked as though he couldn't be more than a few years older than her, but still seemed to familiar.

"No," he began to smile at the sight of the young woman, beautiful despite her unbrushed blonde hair and dressed only in a tank top and sweatpants. Finally his breath returned to him just long enough for him to introduce himself. "I'm Noah Bennet," he stated as he extended his hand for a shake.

"Bennet?" she asked, stunned to put it mildly. That feathered blonde hair, no glasses, his young face. It couldn't be. And yet those amazing eyes. That incredible smile. She would know those in an instant. Too many years of staring at both proved to her what she otherwise wouldn't have believed.

"Yes, Elle," Bob drawled, "this is my associate whom I was telling you about last night. Now please go and put some clothes on before addressing either of us again."

Elle sighed and turned on her heel. So much for thinking her father had been more of a human twenty-five years ago.

"You told her about me?" Noah asked softly as he tried to shake himself from his daze, having thought their assignment was supposed to only be between them.

"Only that you would be coming by today," the older man answered. Bob didn't see why Noah needed to know about his daughter's trip from the future. He knew Noah wouldn't believe it and as it was he wouldn't have believed it either had Elle not been able to prove it with her powers and certain knowledge of their family history.

"Since you seem to have company, does that mean I'm working alone today or -"

"Change of plans, Noah. I think it might be beneficial for you to work with Elle."

They had yet to be formally introduced but already the younger man was nearly beaming. "Really?"

"One of us, one of them, Noah. She has an ability that I'm sure you'll find very useful." When he looked up he saw Elle making her way out of her bedroom dressed in what her father deemed appropriate clothing for the occasion. A dark top and actual pants, not too far off from how she had been dressed when she arrived the night before.

"Hi," she smiled to Noah, unable to keep from blushing slightly at how he was smiling at her already. Apparently subtlety wasn't something he had perfected yet. She liked that.

"Noah, this is Elle," Bob stated. He couldn't introduce her as his daughter and for safety's sake he didn't want to introduce her as any sort of relation to him.

"Nice to meet you," she smiled as she finally took his hand. Okay, it was cliché at best to feel a spark when their hands met and she hoped both men would think that she simply hadn't perfected control of her power. Really her heart was racing and she couldn't help but stare up at him. She had never really noticed before, maybe because she had forced herself not to, but Noah was really attractive. Dare she even think it? Downright hot if she were honest with herself.

"Likewise," he smiled, too distracted by the sight of her to have even noticed the spark of electricity that came from her fingertips.

"Now that we all know each other, I suppose it's time for you both to get a move on," Bob interrupted. Last he had heard his former partner was engaged. Why in hell was he looking to his daughter that way?

"Right. So simple bag and tag?" Elle asked.

"Simple?" Noah chuckled. "You've done this before?"

"Just once or twice," she winked with a smile. Was she flirting with him?! Flirting with her partner?! She couldn't believe it. What a difference twenty-five years made. Before there had been their age difference, the fact that he was married and the sheer hassle of the job. None of that seemed to be there now. Yes, she had checked his ring finger twice already and couldn't help but inwardly cheer at the sight of it being bare.

" I guess you weren't kidding about having done this before," Noah commented as they finished their assignment in time for lunch.

She laughed, so often he had been the one to make it look easy. "How about something to eat? I don't know about you but I haven't exactly eaten since yesterday."

"Bob didn't feed you?" he asked, though he wasn't too surprised.

"You and I left kind of early today and I got there kind of late last night," she answered.

"If you don't mind my asking, how did you end up at Bob's house?" Noah asked her as they sat down in a diner for lunch.

"I'm his niece," she answered nonchalantly.

"Niece," he smiled. Thank God. Hearing she was his latest fling would have ruined his idea of the young woman's intelligence and he knew he would be a dead man if Elle had said she was his daughter.

"So how did you meet him? Come to work for him?" She never had known the full story and she had always been curious.

"I guess you could say I fell into it. I can't really say more than that."

"So what does your family think of it?" she asked next. Her luck told her that this was going too well. Just because he wasn't wearing a ring didn't mean she had the chance she hoped she did. If he had already met Sandra she knew this would already be dead in the water.

Noah sighed. If only he could have met this gorgeous, seemingly interested young woman when he was single. "My fiancée doesn't know what I really do. She seems content with thinking that I'm a paper salesman."

Elle nodded. "Fiancée, wow. So what happens when she figures it out? Or when the lies get to be too much?"

"I would hope she never does, it'd be hard to say what could happen if she did."

Okay, she wouldn't deny herself the pain. It hurt. About a thousand times more than the last time she had sent out an energy blast during a rain storm, to be specific. Of course he was engaged already. He was gorgeous, witty, strong… And with that she had to stop before she killed what was left of her appetite.

"So how about you? Anyone in particular you have to keep secrets from?" he half-smiled. He wanted the arrow through the heart, it would make him feel better. If she was single he would never stop kicking himself. If only he could turn back the clock.

"No, no one." She thought of Peter, but there was nothing there. He was just a toy. Adam would never stick around and Sylar would sooner kill her than give her the time of day. It was Noah she kept coming back to, the only one she knew she could trust. She couldn't even imagine herself with anyone else.

A month went by and still no sign of Peter to take her back home. Elle was beginning to grow evermore convinced that she would be stuck back in time. The fact she knew her partner's wedding was coming up only further sickened her.

Living with her father now wasn't any easier than it had been when was living at The Company but at least he hadn't threatened her with that again. Emphasis on yet, she knew.

"Elle," Bob called to her as she laid awake for yet another night. It had to be after midnight, but it hardly felt like it.

"Yeah, Dad?" she called back.

"Noah Bennet is on the phone for you."

She picked up the extension in her room. "I got it," she called to him.

"Make it quick, some of us need our sleep," he told her.

"Hello?" she asked into the receiver.

"I need to see you," he told her.

Elle sat up in bed. "Me? When? Why?"

"Meet me at the diner where we first had lunch. It's open all night. I just have to have to see you and it has to be now.

She could tell he was in a panic and after years of working with him she knew to dress as fast as she could. She hailed a taxi and made it to the diner in under ten minutes. Whatever this was had to be important. She could only fear what it might be. Was he hurt? Had he been fired from The Company? Was it about baby Claire? Couldn't be, she hadn't even been born yet, Elle reminded herself. Too many questions for one late night were racing through her tired mind.

"Bennet?" she asked when she saw him seated at a table.

"Elle," he sighed, relieved to finally see her.

"What is it? What's wrong? Why did I have to come here after midnight?" She had more questions but those were the first to leave her mouth. To be fair, he looked worse than she did and she couldn't help but wonder how and why.

"I've been thinking about what you said. I've really been thinking about it and you're right."

"About what?" She had never seen him quite like this.

"I can't lie to her. I've lied to her for so long as it is, but I can't marry her when I'd only be thinking of you. Knowing that you're the one who should be walking down that aisle." He hadn't even heard most of the words that had poured from his own mouth but he knew he had to tell Elle. If he was going to choose her over the woman he had spent the last few years with she deserved to know it. After all he had already told Sandra that he couldn't go through with it.

"Me?" Elle had to sit at that. "You don't even really know me. You've just -"

"I love you, Elle. I don't know how or why. I don't even know how this happened so fast. But with you I don't have to lie, I don't have to hide anything and it's like you know what I'm thinking when I don't even have to say a word. You already understand what she never could."

"Do you have any idea what you're saying? What you're throwing away?" she asked. It had been a month of bagging and tagging, little jokes, maybe getting little too cozy on stakeouts and too close over shared take-out dinners. And sure there had been that one kiss that they had sworn was unintentional and had happened in the heat of the moment when they had tried to keep from getting noticed by a target. But this? This was unbelievable!

"I'll be losing more if you don't say yes. I look at you and I know you're everything I've been needing, I don't have to lie to you, I don't have to keep anything from you, with her it would all be one big lie and even I can't base a marriage or a whole life on a lie like that."

"Why me though? I'm sure there are several, several women at The Company who'd be all over you given half a chance," she stated. Yes she wanted him, more now than ever even but she had to know this wasn't just him getting cold feet about getting married.

"They're not you, Elle."

"Bennet, you don't love me. You just -"

"I do, Elle. From the second I saw you coming out of that bedroom and I know you felt it too. Remember what you said to me? You asked if you knew me as though you'd seen me before. You looked at me as though you'd known me for years, if that isn't love at first sight then I don't know what is and I didn't even believe in it until I saw you," he went on.

Elle couldn't help but stare into his eyes then, So wide, so blue, so full of longing. He really was telling her the truth.

"Have you at least told her about this revelation?" She had to know. If she was going to ruin, or at least change, Sandra's life she would at least like to know it wouldn't be as much of a surprise to the other woman.

"Yes," he sighed. As usual he hadn't told her the whole truth, but he hadn't completely lied either.

"So what now?" Elle asked. Part of her feared he would take a ring out right then and propose to her, another part of her feared Peter would choose that moment to appear and tell her to come back with him. She knew she wouldn't even if he did. Yes she had changed the future, that was certain, what all she had changed was yet to be seen but Elle couldn't care about that then. She loved Noah. Her partner, her mentor, a man she felt she had only just truly gotten to know despite having known him for years in their previous life together.

"I would hope you'd wait to tell your uncle," he smiled. "I wouldn't want him to kill me so soon after this."

"So soon after professing your love to his niece, you mean?" she laughed.

"Yes," he laughed in reply, unable to help feeling relieved.

She got up from her seat across from him and slid into the booth beside him. "I can keep a secret," she breathed as she captured him in a tight embrace that he eagerly returned.

It was 1984 in this world, she was only supposed to be a year old and instead here she sat at twenty-four, seeing her future as clear as day as she remained in Noah's somewhat possessive hold. It was almost comforting to know what awaited her, even though she couldn't quite believe it. For one thing she knew she wasn't ready to be a mother yet but she consoled herself in knowing that they had at least five years to get ready for Claire's arrival into their lives.

As for her father, well, Elle knew from experience Bob could do worse for a son-in-law than Noah Bennet. At least he would know he could trust Noah with her. After all he had for this long and thus far Elle had saved Noah more times than there had been a need for the opposite.

The End


End file.
